diff -ruN postgresql-7.4.8-old/src/backend/main/main.c postgresql-7.4.8/src/backend/main/main.c
--- postgresql-7.4.8-old/src/backend/main/main.c	2005-07-15 10:07:15.000000000 +0300
+++ postgresql-7.4.8/src/backend/main/main.c	2005-07-15 10:15:26.000000000 +0300
@@ -161,7 +161,7 @@
 			  strcmp(argv[1], "-V") == 0)))
 	{
 #ifndef WIN32
-#ifndef __BEOS__
+#if 0
 
 		/*
 		 * Make sure we are not running as root.
diff -ruN postgresql-7.4.8-old/src/bin/initdb/initdb.sh postgresql-7.4.8/src/bin/initdb/initdb.sh
--- postgresql-7.4.8-old/src/bin/initdb/initdb.sh	2004-05-05 19:09:56.000000000 +0300
+++ postgresql-7.4.8/src/bin/initdb/initdb.sh	2005-07-15 10:08:51.000000000 +0300
@@ -169,15 +169,6 @@
     exit 1
 fi
 
-if [ `$PGPATH/pg_id -u` -eq 0 ]
-then
-    echo "$CMDNAME: cannot be run as root" 1>&2
-    echo "Please log in (using, e.g., \"su\") as the (unprivileged) user that will" 1>&2
-    echo "own the server process." 1>&2
-    exit 1
-fi
-
-
 short_version=`echo $VERSION | sed -e 's!^\([0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\).*!\1!'`
 if [ x"$short_version" = x"" ] ; then
   echo "$CMDNAME: bug: version number has wrong format" 1>&2